NEW YORK Dec 19 (Reuters) - The U.S. oil industry believes
it has a surefire way to help lower gasoline prices - lift a
decades-old ban on most crude oil exports and allow some of the
shale oil bounty to flow overseas, bringing down global prices.

U.S. voters have a very different idea: stop exporting
gasoline.

The deep split in views, revealed in a Reuters/Ipsos poll
that is the first to examine attitudes in the United States
toward what many expect will be one of the biggest and most
important energy debates to hit Washington in decades: Should
the ban on U.S. crude exports be lifted?

The poll found respondents nearly evenly divided on whether
or not U.S. oil should be allowed to be shipped abroad.

Respondents were much more unequivocal, however, about
gasoline prices, with a large majority stating they would oppose
crude oil exports if it meant higher prices at the pump.

"No one wants to do anything that will raise the price of
gasoline," said Sarah Emerson, director of Energy Security
Analysis Inc in Boston, in reference to the poll results.

"That makes me believe that for the people that oppose
exports, that's going to be a really strong card to play."

The debate over oil exports, which is expected to begin in
earnest in 2014, coincides with U.S. oil production hitting the
highest level in 25 years on the back of the shale boom. The
risk for producers is that output of the light, sweet shale oil
could eclipse U.S. refiners' ability to process it in the coming
years, depressing prices and forcing output to be shut in.

For U.S. oil refiners, especially those on the Gulf Coast
which have benefited from the cheap shale crude and ability to
sell fuel to foreign markets, there may be a risk to bringing
the issue of petroleum exports into the spotlight.

The poll found a majority of those polled said that exports
of gasoline, which are legal, should be restricted. That number
shot up if respondents were asked if they should be restricted
to protect gasoline prices.

These questions were taken from the ongoing Reuters/Ipsos
poll between Oct. 28 and Nov. 11. The questions were asked of
2,400 American adults. The results have a credibility interval,
a measure of precision, of plus or minus 2.3 percent.

For a Factbox on polls of five major energy issues, click

GASOLINE SWAYS OPINIONS

Oil exports are strictly limited by bans put in place after
the Arab oil embargo of the 1970s. Under certain conditions
companies can be granted licenses to ship oil overseas, but the
volumes are small.

When asked simply if producers should be allowed to export
oil, 41 percent of respondents said that they agreed with that
statement, and 38 percent said they do not.

The question of whether oil exports should be allowed if it
meant higher gasoline prices, yielded much stronger opinions,
however: 65 percent of respondents would not want exports if it
drove up pump prices, versus 17.5 percent who said they would
still support them.

The poll results were also relatively consistent across the
political field, with 67 percent of Democrats agreeing oil
exports should be restricted if they caused a hike in gasoline
prices, compared with 72 percent of Republicans and 65 percent
of independents.

The poll also showed that 54 percent of respondents think
gasoline exports should be restricted. That number jumps to 72
percent when they are asked if they should be limited to protect
pump prices at home.

"Politically it's not a great issue," said Jason Bordoff,
director of the Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia
University and a senior White House energy adviser until late
last year. "It's challenging to make the case that we should be
exporting our own oil, even if economically there's an argument
to do so."

The risk of higher gasoline prices is likely to be at the
fore of the effort to keep the ban in place. Earlier this month,
Democratic Senator Ed Markey of Massachusetts called reports
that oil companies will attempt to overturn the ban
"disturbing".

"This oil should be kept here in America, to benefit our
consumers and to reduce our dependence on imports from the
Middle East," Markey said in a statement.

UPHILL BATTLE?

For the oil sector, which has yet to start a large scale
public campaign to overturn the ban, the arguments they are
expected to put forward include: improving the U.S. trade
balance and creating more jobs by boosting production.

In addition, they will likely state that by allowing
exports, more U.S. crude will be produced and delivered into
world markets, cutting global prices. That would in turn
encourage global refiners to produce more gasoline, reducing
prices in all markets, including the United States. U.S. fuel
prices are tied to global markets, meaning they are influenced
by factors outside of domestic supply and demand.

"It is incontrovertible that if the U.S. exported crude the
price of gasoline would be lower," said Ed Morse, managing
director of commodity research at Citigroup.

"And it is incontrovertible that the trading interests of
the United States have become increasingly dominated by energy."

U.S. Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz last week said the export
ban was a "child of the 1970s and the embargo", and that should
the Department of Commerce decide to revisit it the Department
of Energy would provide data and technical assistance.

The Department of Commerce's Bureau of Industry and Security
(BIS) issues oil export licenses under certain conditions.
Almost all the licenses received in recent years were for crude
headed to Canada for internal use, one of the conditions under
which a license can be granted.

Shipments to Canada jumped to 67,000 bpd in 2012 from 25,000
bpd in 2006, and are averaging just over 100,000 bpd for the
first nine months of 2013. U.S. oil production was 7.3 million
bpd over the period, according to U.S. government data.

Oil producers are pressing to do more. According to the BIS,
companies filed for licences to export $113.6 billion worth of
crude oil in 2012, up from $12 billion in 2006.

Some analysts argue that despite the surge in shale oil
production, the U.S. refining sector is flexible enough to
adjust and process all the rising crude flows, and that the
pressure for a big increase in exports is unnecessary.

Given the political sensitivity of the issue, Columbia
University's Bordoff expects that a serious debate about lifting
the export restrictions will only happen if the flood of U.S.
crude production starts delivering hard choices to oil
companies.

"If there's a policy change then it will most likely be in
response to impacts that we see on the ground," he said.

"If you start to see price disconnects, challenges around
handling refined products on the Gulf Coast, producers saying
they're cutting back or idling rigs because they can't fetch a
world price - those are the types of things that might start
people talking more."
(Additional reporting by Jonathan Leff; Editing by Grant
McCool)

Trending On Reuters

REUTERS EXCLUSIVE

India's main public health programmes, aimed at millions of rural poor, have been in disarray for months because the government changed the way that over $1.3 billion in funds were distributed, according to data and letters seen by Reuters. Full Article | Graphic: India's health funding